Thursday, June 14, 2018

On the MENU this week. Broccoli and Blue Cheese Soup


Quite an easy soup to make and great for dinner parties. One thing that is different about this is that it doesn’t contain any milk or cream. You can add some at the table if you wish.
1 tbsp canola oil - 1 medium onion , finely chopped - 1 stick celery, finely chopped - 1 leek, sliced - 1 medium potato, diced - 1 knob butter – 1 litre chicken or vegetable stock - 1 large head broccoli , roughly chopped, core and stalk removed, chopped and put aside - 140g of good blue cheese, crumbled
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and then add the onion, and fry gently on a medium heat until golden. Add the celery, leek, potato and a knob of butter. Stir and allow to sweat, covered with a lid, for 5 minutes. This really improves the flavours. Remove the lid.
Pour in the stock and add any chunky bits of broccoli stalk. Simmer for 10 – 15 minutes until all the vegetables are soft.
Add the rest of the broccoli and cook for a further 5 minutes. Don’t cook for too long or you will loose the lovely green colour. Carefully transfer to a blender and blitz in batches, until very smooth. Be careful, hot soup can be dangerous in a blender, don’t overfill. Stir in 100g of the blue cheese and liquidize till smooth. Season with black pepper and serve. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
We accompanied our soup with three things, bagel croutons, the other 40 g of blue cheese to sprinkle and crisp dried onions. We served a Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2009 from KWV’s The Mentors range. The Strandveld Sauvignon Blanc would also be a perfect match

No comments: